NTSB report: Andy Teuber was distraught over pending ADN story before heli crash

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The late Andy Teuber, on his own wedding day, could not convince the Anchorage Daily News to hold the scandalous story about him for even a few hours.

Teuber, who had rushed back to Anchorage from out of state one day after getting married, dashed to Merrill Field and got into his helicopter to head to Kodiak, so he could explain to his family what was about to happen to him in Alaska’s biggest newspaper: He was about to be exposed for a salacious relationship he had with an employee at Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

He was the big CEO, and the woman in question, an employee and former lover, was going to take him down.

The National Transportation Safety Board report indicates that Teuber was rushed, and probably tired. His helicopter crashed en route.

“He (another pilot for Kodiak Helicopters) commented to the Kodiak Helicopters pilot that he wanted to be in Kodiak, and with his family, when a local news story involving him was scheduled to publish,” the NTSB report says.

It’s a rare day when the NTSB makes mention that a newspaper event may have prompted an accident. The wording is careful, the the implication is clear: Andy Teuber was not in his right mind to pilot his helicopter to Kodiak.

Even the Anchorage Daily News story on the NTSB report indicates that the rush to print their story was a possible contributing factor to Teuber’s death.

“The helicopter company pilot told investigators that Teuber said he was trying to fly from Merrill Field in Anchorage to Kodiak to be with family, the report said,” the ADN reported.

“The story, published later that day by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica, detailed allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct made in a Feb. 23 resignation letter to the ANTHC board from a former assistant, Savanah Evans, including accusations he ‘unrelentingly coerced, forced and required sex’ of her,” the newspaper reported.

The allegations being made by Evans were disputed by Teuber, who provided answers to the ADN’s questions, saying it was a consensual relationship. He also told the newspaper that he would be able to show them text messages between the two former lovers that proved it was consensual — text messages that the newspaper could not get Evans to show. But the newspaper didn’t want to wait.

Craig Medred, writer at CraigMedred.News, picks up the story from there:

Teuber is now dead and will never know why the rush to publication if ADN reporters and editors ever do explain. So far they have stayed silent.

As is well known to most Alaskans today, Teuber – a one-time member of the University of Alaska Board of Regents along with being the ANTHC president – never made it to Kodiak. The National Transportation Safety Board Tuesday declared him dead in its preliminary investigation into the disappearance of the black-and-white R66 he was flying.

The turbine-powered, five-seat helicopter “is presumed destroyed after it impacted ocean waters about 70 miles north of Kodiak,” the report said.

The report also indicates Teuber was in a big hurry to get home. A satellite tracker has the helicopter flying in excess of its recommended cruising speed just before it went down.

Little debris has been found and the exact cause of the accident might never be known, but the NTSB report also indicates Teuber was not in a good mental state to be at the controls.

Read more about the rush to print and the link to an untimely death at CraigMedred.news:

23 COMMENTS

  1. So why couldn’t the ADN’s owner, John Binkley, have waited one more day to give this man an opportunity to defend himself and be with his family. The ADN is unconscionable and contributed to this man’s death.

    • Yeah, it makes one wonder …….
      Who would break the story on the ADN’s owner if a story on corruption against the ADN’s owner is discovered?

  2. My opinion of the ADN, its editors, and Kyle Hopkins has diminished considerably as a result of this. I will never understand why they decided to forgo usual and necessary verification and confirmation prior to publishing such a salacious and deficient story that is based on the word of one individual. Tueber claimed to have relevant text messages, for God’s sake. This is on you, Kyle.

    • ADN is a hardliner for the #MeToo movement, and I’m sure this had something to do with the need to run the story.

      Ready, fire, aim at its best!

    • Robinson R66 have auto pilot. He got married the day before he disappeared and the day he disappeared his house was listed on the MLS.

  3. No one who had access to him nor anyone having access to Savanah cared enough about them to disciple Christ to either them. 53 years old, and Andy Teuber should have had someone discipling him the Bible. Why is it easier for Christians tell a homeless, abused, addicted person, someone who is clearly messed up about Jesus and disciple them, but not tell someone like Andy Teuber and Savana.

    Many Alaska leaders, managers, executives, assistants are just as messed up as a shabby homeless abused person needing a Savior to break their chains. He would not been anxious about anything, if he had his eyes on Jesus through his storm.

    Alaska has too much pride to cry out to the Lord, it cries out to everyone else inadequate to comfort them, when Healing and Deliverance is only in the name of Jesus Christ!

    My uncle died the same way, running away distraught in a fishing boat heading into a storm, plus he died drunk. I think he was not a Christian, but just as any Alaska small town, the people he lived around went to Church but don’t know God and his Word enough to disciple and strengthen one another.

    • Savana enjoyed getting Teuber’d for money and when the amount of money that normally came from the Teub shrank, she started hollering abuse. That’s all.

      Whomever he had recently married needs to go get an STD check and assuming a clear bill of health; whistle all the way to the bank.

      Be well and go with God, my child.

  4. ADN does not care what happens to someone as long as they get to break a news story. The news source is pure garbage.

  5. The Me Too movement is dead. Apparently ADN didn’t get the memo. Oh, journalism is dead as well.

  6. The ADN killed this man
    There is no dispute that their rush to judgment contributed to the mindset of this man. The married flossie can now live with her choices.

  7. Insert Don Henley singing”Dirty Laundry” here. The news media has become an entertainment vehicle that goes for ratings, not accuracy. Outlets like Must Read are the only media that actually us facts in reporting.

  8. I remember once a young lady called up Rush Limbaugh on his show asking him for advice on starting a career in journalism. He said something like “Well, you never really make your mark in journalism until you destroy someone. So you should try to accomplish that as soon as possible.”

    So congrats to the ADN reporter on making their mark in journalism according to Rush Limbaugh.

  9. They rushed the ‘bombshell story’ when they did so that when Mr. Tueber showed them the communications that showed it was a consensual relationship, they would have another ‘bombshell story.’ And then when Ms. Evans responded, yet another story. Always more to these sagas than we will likely ever know.

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